Fuel cells which include a solid polymer electrolyte membrane are known in the prior art. This type of fuel cell operates best when the electrolyte membrane is kept moist with water because the membrane will not operate efficiently when it is dry. During operation of the cells, water is dragged through the membrane from the anode side to the cathode side along with proton movement through the membrane. This phenomenon tends to dry the anode side of the membrane, and also tends to create a water film on the cathode surface of the membrane. The cathode surface will be further wetted by product water which is formed in the electrochemical reaction and appears on the cathode surface. Thus water must be supplied to the anode side of the membrane to prevent drying, but water must be removed from the aathode side to prevent a film of water from forming on the membrane surface which blocks access of the oxygen reactant to the membrane. In order to ensure that oxygen can flow through to the cathode surface of the membrane, a wetproofed sheet of carbon paper is juxtaposed to the cathode surface of the membrane. The paper sheet is porous so as to allow oxygen to diffuse through to the membrane, but the wetproofing causes the water which appears on the cathode surface to be unable to wet the paper. The water thus tends to flow through the paper along restricted flow paths, and beads up on the outside surface of the paper remote from the membrane. In the prior art this beaded water was wicked off of the paper by a fibrous wick which extended around the edges of the paper and led to a porous ceramic block. The stack of the prior art thus included a fibrous wick for each cell and the porous ceramic block common to all the cells which held the water. This arrangement makes edge sealing of the cells very difficult, thus there was frequent reactant crossover at the cell margins with resultant fires.